Legal & General completes sale of Dutch unit, easyJet passengers up 10.6pc in March
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 48 points lower on Thursday, after closing up 0.13% at 7,331.68 on Wednesday.
Stocks to watch
Legal & General Group said it had completed the sale of its Netherlands unit to Chesnara for €161m (£137.6m), adding that the deal had marginally improved the group coverage ratio, and delivered a small IFRS profit. L&G is disposing of non-core businesses, focusing capital and resource on core businesses in growth markets where it believes it could achieve significant scale and deliver returns for shareholders. It has already sold businesses in Ireland, France, Egypt, the Gulf, and Suffolk Life and Cofunds in the UK.
Budget airline easyJet reported 10.6% increase in passenger numbers for March. Passenger numbers last month grew to 6.33m from 5.72m in March 2016, as the load factor – which gauges how full the planes actually are – rose 1.4 percentage points to 92.7%.
Electrocomponents issued a trading update for the year to 31 March on Thursday with revenue growth across the group of 5%. The FTSE 250 firm said growth in Europe was 4% through the year, while it was 7% in North America and 4% in Asia and emerging markets. Foreign exchange and additional trading days also had a positive impact on the numbers, with the board warning of the fewer trading days in 2018.
Polymer maker Victrex said it has bought Zyex, a manufacturer of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) based fibres for the aerospace, automotive and industrial markets, for £10m in order to explore 3D printing capabilities. The acquisition is part of the FTSE 250 company’s strategy to focus on selected semi-finished and differentiated products based on PEEK and polyaryletherketone (PAEK) polymers.
Alongside new plans to "go faster and further" with its restructuring programme, Unilever upped its annual dividend guidance and launched a €5bn share buyback, as well as confirming it will sell off its spreads business. Following a review of the group's strategy after fighting off a bid from US rival Kraft Heinz, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group's new plans include establishing an integrated Foods & Refreshment unit, targeting an increased €6bn of cost savings, doubling its cash conversion ratio and a possible review of its dual-headed legal structure.
Newspaper round-up
Tesco is cutting night shifts for shelf stackers in some of its biggest supermarkets in a fresh shakeup that puts 3,000 jobs at risk. The UK’s biggest retailer said the consultation process with night workers in the 69 impacted stores would begin this summer. As part of the changes, eight stores will stop trading round the clock, while other roles will be eliminated by plans to merge customer service counters with lottery and tobacco kiosks. - The Guardian
The head of the Dulux paint group Akzo Nobel warned that up to 3,300 British jobs are under threat in the hostile takeover approach from PPG, its main American rival, and revealed that the British government is monitoring the issue. On a day when PPG stepped up the pressure on Akzo Nobel’s board by claiming that most of the Dutch paints and chemicals group’s top investors wanted it to open negotiations over the €22 billion takeover offer, Ton Büchner, Akzo’s chief executive, said that ministers and regulators were also worried about the fate of 80,000 UK pensioners caught up in the battle. - The Times
Britain’s workers are at last producing more in each hour of work than they were at the end of 2007, after almost 10 years of poor productivity. A spurt in productivity growth in the final quarter of 2016 came as the economy accelerated, finally surpassing the hourly output levels seen before the financial crisis. - The Daily Telegraph
US close
Wall Street skidded lower as the US central bank surprised some market participants by flagging an earlier-than-expected start to the process of shrinking its balance sheet to more normal levels, probably later in 2017.
The Dow Jones Industrial ended the session down by 0.20% to 20,648.15, the S&P 500 declined 0.31% or 7.21 points to 2,352.95, and the Nasdaq fell 0.58% or to 5,864.48; while losses were puny the main indices saw a relatively large swing from their intra-day highs.
"The committee moved quicker than we anticipated, and staff weighed in with various alternative scenarios during the March meeting.
“The desire to signal sooner than later is likely a function of the committee’s wish to avoid adverse market reactions.
“Communicating early – and often – could have been seen as the best remedy to avoid a 2013 'taper tantrum' reaction from markets," Michael Gapen at Barclays Research said in a note sent to clients.
Adding to the selling pressure, oil prices advanced after the American Petroleum Institute reported a draw of 1.8m barrels in US crude oil inventories last week, versus expectations of a 435,000 draw.